Things move fast on Wall Street. At close of trading on Friday in New York, investment bank Bear Stearns was valued at $3.54 billion, based on its $30-a-share price. In early editions of this morning's FT, presumably published at around midnight, it was valued at $3.2 billion. When the deal with JP Morgan was actually announced an hour or two later, they ended up paying just $230 million.
An announcement on Bear Stearns website says:
In light of entering into an agreement to merge with JPMorgan Chase, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE: BSC) will not be announcing its first quarter 2008 financial results on Monday, March 17, 2008, as previously scheduled.
I wonder what they were planning to say?
